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Galactic Warship Classifications
The standardised method of classifying military warships is older than the council itself and goes back tens of thousands of years. Although the designs of each ship varies from race to race, there are simple qualifications for each ship to determine their classification. There are many variations that are not included in official classication, such as transport and supply ships, these vary far too much from race to race and therefore a classication system is inefficient. History of Classification Around 74,000 years ago only a handful of spieces were capable of long distance faster than light travel, so many different types of classifications existed. About 55,000 years ago, the first major galactic wars began. Shortly after that time what became known as the Contact Wars, broke out between several races. Very little remains of this war as most of the races that began it or fought in it have long since died out or inter-bred with other races, which is why many of the exact times are subject to some speculation. However, what is known is that during the war a single race came up with a new military structure and mass produced several classifications of ships. Eventually, due to sheer organisation, that particular race (Historians still debate which race it was) succeeded in winning the war. Since then the classification system has been copied, modified and recycled into the modern system used many thousands of years before the Great Galactic War before the 1st Epoch. Classifications Fighters - These are single or twin seater small engined low yield spacecraft. Armed usually with a forward facing cannon (the design of the cannons vary from race to race) and a small number of fighter v fighter missiles. The main objective of the fighter is to destroy enemy fighters and to cause minor damage to larger ships. Once a significant number of enemy fighters are destoryed, the victorious fighters can then swarm larger ships. Frigate - '''A crew of about 100 - 250 is used to man this sort of vessal. It is usually a bodyguard of larger ships and is the final line of defence during a fighter swarm. It also provides tactical and communicative information. Although this ship has few 'heavy weapons' such as anti-matter shots or nuclear morters, it maintains small-mid range style weapons, specialised in dealing with craft smaller or the same size as itself. If a frigate comes into a one-on-one battle against Crusier or Dreadnaught class ships, there is only one outcome, the destruction of the Frigate. '''Armarda' '- Armarda class ships are what make up the bulk of a fleet, hence the name Armarda class. These run with crews of about 250 - 1,500, depending on the design. These ships operate a main heavy weapon, usually nuclear, however, there are exceptional Armarda class types that run Anti-matter cannons (The Cryso, was refitted with an anti-matter cannon on the request of its Captain, Svilk De-Vitosi ). They also carry a formidable arsenal of midrange sized weapons, but carry limited quick fire anti-fighter style weaponary, making them more vulnerable to fighter swarms. Armarda ships are well known to fire in small groups on Capital or even Dreadnaught class vessals and succeeding. Destoryer - '''A retired form of classification, despite this is still held in small numbers by some races. Often highly expensive with similar capabilities to its smaller cousin the Armarda class. A crew of around 1000 is needed to operate it, this and the cost, (It is a physically larger ship than the Armarda class) which results in a similar ship to the Armarda is the reason most have discontinued it. '''Capital' '- The bread and butter of an advanced central fleet, the Capital ship makes up the bulk of heavy fire power. Piloted by crews of about 5,000 to the larger 10,000, it has a range of weaponary, from the smaller anti-fighter guns to the, often mulitple, anti-matter cannons, used to attack other Capital ships and destroy groups of Frigates. '''Dreadnought - '''The most powerful ships in fleets are the Dreadnoughts, used as Admiral Flagships. Crews from this class have been known to run, on average, at about 50,000. These are truly monsterous machines, operating many anti-matter cannons, nuclear morters, mid range quick fire guns and smaller anti-frigate weapons. The first Dreadnought ever built was said to have needed a crew of 140,000 to run at maximum potential, naturally, the ship was never correctly used in battle due to the difficulty in communicating quickly with that number of people. However it was likely nothing more than a status symbol at the time.